Page 50 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Hungary

48  INTRODUCING HUNGAR Y THE HIST OR Y OF HUNGAR Y  49

the government, but the head of the
Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal József The 1956 Hungarian Revolution
Mindszenty, resisted. The government On the morning of 23 October, students and workers unhappy with falling living standards
arrested him in December 1948 and marched on Radio Hungary in Budapest, in a bid to broadcast a list of demands, which
sentenced him to life imprisonment. included the immediate withdrawal of all Soviet troops stationed in Hungary. Actively
Shortly after, the regime disbanded supported by sections of the Hungarian army, the revolutionaries attacked the AVH (secret
most Catholic religious orders and police) and Soviet soldiers, and the revolt spread nationwide. The Hungarian Communist
secularized Catholic schools. Party, fearing total collapse, gave in to a number of demands, and on 27 October invited
Between 1948 and 1953 Mátyás Rákosi Imre Nagy to form a new government. However, on 4 November, thousands more Soviet
led a brutal regime that reorganized the troops invaded Hungary and, despite fierce resistance, quickly crushed the revolution.
economy. In a campaign reminiscent of
the Soviet Union’s forced collectivization
Cardinal Mindszenty accused of treason and espionage in the 1930s, the regime compelled most
peasants to join collective farms and
Sovietization required them to make deliveries to the
The parliamentary elections in 1945 were government at prices lower than the cost
won by the Independent Small holders’ of produc tion. Hundreds of thousands
Party, supported by a wide spectrum of were deported, arrested and executed.
Hungarian society. How ever, the occupying
Soviet Union enforced a coalition with Revolution
the Social Democrats, the National Peasant The terror eased slightly after Stalin’s death
Party and the Communists. New elections in 1953, when Rákosi was ousted and
in 1947 were rigged, the Communists Imre Nagy became prime minister. Nagy
claiming a massive victory. By the end of embarked on reform until the return of
1948 all other political parties had been Rákosi in 1955. Rákosi attempted to reinsti­
outlawed, or forced to merge with the tute a Red Terror. He was forced to resign Revolutionaries with
Com munists in the Hungarian Workers in July 1956 and replaced by Ernő Gerő. On Captured Soviet Tank
Party (HWP). In 1949, after an 23 October anti­Soviet crowds For a short time, the revolution ar ies
election in which only HWP protested in Budapest. Nagy unquestionably had the upper hand
candidates were allowed, was reappointed. He dissolved and initially Soviet troops stationed in
Hungary offered little resistance. It is
Hungary was declared a the state security police, abol­ thought that some troops even sided
People’s Republic. ished the one­party system with the revolution. How ever, when the
The Church became the main and promised free elections. Soviet army invaded on 4 November, it The enormous statue of Stalin that stood in
source of opposition to the On 1 November Hun gary did so to brutal effect, and an estimated Budapest’s City Park (Városliget) was iconoclastically
200,000 Hungarians fled the country
HWP. The government confis­ announced neutrality and as refugees. torn down on 24 October by revolutionaries and
perhaps defines the finest moment of the revolution.
cated church property and withdrawal from the Warsaw
nationalized church schools. Pact. On 4 November the
Protestant church leaders Mátyás Rákosi, Soviet Union invaded and Imre Nagy
reached a compromise with Hungarian prime minister crushed the revolution.
Captured by the Russians in World War I, Imre Nagy (1856–1958) fell
in with Russian Communists and emigrated to Russia at the war’s end.
Avoiding Stalin’s purges of the 1920s and 1930s, he became a leading
1947 The 1953 The reform­minded Imre Nagy becomes 1957 János
Communists win prime minister, but lasts only two years before 1955 Hungary is Kádár figure in the Communist international, the Comintern, and in 1944 was
rigged elections, and being dismissed. In November Hungary’s football a founding becomes sent to accompany the Red Army as it invaded Hungary. He became
outlaw all other team is the first from mainland Europe to defeat member of the Hungarian the Hungarian prime minister in 1953 and pursued a reformist agenda
political parties. England in London; the score is 6–3. Warsaw Pact. leader. during his two-years in office. Following the uprising, Nagy briefly
returned to office in 1956, but after the Soviet invasion he was betrayed
1945 1950 1955 by one of his closest friends, Romanian Communist Walter Roman.
He was arrested and taken to Snagov Monastery, near Bucharest in
1945 The Germans 1956 Nagy is reinstated. When he Bronze statue of Romania, where he was questioned, tried on camera, and then executed
abandon Hungary to the announces Hungary’s withdrawal from Imre Nagy, Budapest in Budapest in 1958.
Russians in April 1945. Imre Nagy the Warsaw Pact, Soviet forces invade and
(1896–1958) arrest him. He is executed in 1958.

044-051_EW_Hungary.indd 48 18/09/17 3:39 pm 044-051_EW_Hungary.indd 49 18/09/17 3:39 pm